The American Shuttle Challenger

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On January 28, 1986, the American shuttle Challenger was completely destroyed 73 seconds after liftoff, a catastrophic end to the shuttle's tenth mission. This disaster took the lives of all seven astronauts aboard. One of those astronauts was a teacher, Christa McAuliffe, who was selected to go on the mission and still teach but teach to students all over the United States from space. It was later determined that two rubber O-rings, which had been designed to separate the sections of the rocket booster, had failed because of cold temperatures on the morning of the launch. This tragedy and the aftermath received widespread media coverage and urged NASA to temporarily suspend all shuttle missions. NASA introduced to the world, in 1976, the first reusable manned spacecraft. This became known as the space shuttle. Five years later, in 1981, space flights began with Columbia. Columbia ascended into space for a 54 hour orbiting mission. Later, it descended back to earth, as if it was a regular airplane that just took passengers from Boston to Detroit. Columbia only had two crewmembers, Commander John Young and Pilot Bob Crippen. Columbia completed 27 missions before disintegrating in the descent of its 28th mission in 2003. Challenger was NASA’s second space shuttle. Its first mission was April 4, 1983. Challenger made nine journeys into space, before that tragic January day. In 1986, the Challenger crew met at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for countdown training. The crew of this shuttle included two civilians and five astronaut members: “Teacher-in-Space” payload specialist Christa McAuliffe; payload specialist Gregory Jarvis; and astronauts Judith A. Resnik, mission specialist; Dick Scobee, mission commander; Ronald E. McNair, mi... ... middle of paper ... ...missions, including the repair and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the construction of the International Space Station. Yet every January, NASA pauses to remember the last crew of Challenger, and the other crews lost in pursuing space, on a NASA Day of Remembrance. This tragic day will always be remembered as the day that changed space program forever. Works Cited "1986 Challenger Disaster." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. "Challenger Disaster." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. Dunbar, Brian. "Remembering the Challenger Crew." NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. Dunbar, Brian. "Space Shuttle Overview: Challenger (OV-099)." NASA. NASA, 12 Apr. 2013. Web. Reagan, Ronald. "Speech on the Challenger Disaster | Teaching American History." Teaching American History. N.p., n.d. Web. "The Unified Republic of Stars." The Unified Republic of Stars. N.p., n.d. Web.

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